20 kids suspended for visiting website??

The kids were suspended from the TeWinkle Middle School after visiting a student's posting at MySpace.com. This is really quite unbelievable. all I can say is kids, be careful where you venture.

www.breitbart.com...

seems to me, many of these kids could have not known there was anything out of the ordinary (at least for kids) when they went into this site, but because they ventured in, they are suspected of being involved in a hate crime and possible murder plot??

It sounds like they (school admin) really jumped the gun on this one. Middle school kids, yet.

Now the owner of the site, he needs counseling, at the least.

How again was this any of the schools business anyways?

actions that occurred on personal computers, at home and after school hours.

If someone is making death threats of course it should be taken seriously, and the school should be concerned for all of it's students. This is a police matter though, and the student responsible for the threats can be dealt with by them. If I add you to MSN Messenger and your display name is I want to kill all the ATS mod's, should I get banned? What exactly are the limitations on a school's power?

Hate crimes are ridiculous anyways. I think that Trey Parker and Matt Stone said it best. Excerpt from
South Park 4.02 - Cartman's Silly Hate Crime

All hate crimes do is support the idea that blacks are different from whites, that homosexuals need to be treated differently from non-homos, that we aren't the same.

The Zodiac,


[edit on 2-3-2006 by The Zodiac]

I have always said that schools are way to involved in the outside of activites of their students. I especially feel this way about public schools. Parochial schools or private schools where there is a tuition paid by the parents have the right to set some outside behavioral rules as part of the "contract" for the services I suppose.

All in all, the child who actually posted the threat needs help, and if the threat said it were to be carried out in school, then the person doing the threatening has now made it a school matter. If not, it's a legal matter maybe, a parental matter for sure, but not a school matter. The kids that visited the website being suspended is ludicrous, that's a parental matter for sure. How many kids are smoking under 18 on campus? Drinking on the weekends? For that matter how many teenage boys are looking at inappropriate adult material online while at home? I suppose they all need to be suspended as well?

[edit on 6-3-2006 by The Zodiac]

Know what I don't understand about all this is that they treat kids like adults now in school eg. zero tolerance...

but when was the last time you heard of a school teacher being fired? where I live the unions are so powerful, all they can do is just move them around. It is like tenure for a professor, you cannot be fired no matter what you do (well there must be something that can get you fired?).

I don't know. I have never heard of Myspace.com, so just out of curiousity, I went there to wee what it was. On the surface, it appears to be a perfectly healthy website for young people to share music, stories, etc... Of course I didn't click on the links and explore it in depth, but I can see at least two ways that the school was way out of line - no matter how they try to excuse their actions.

For one thing, if a student is doing well, or come to think of it, even not so well in school, as long as the kid doesn't appear to be abused or in real danger, I can't think of any reason what-so-ever a teacher, principal, whomever in a school district could possibly have for involving themselves in any of their students' lives outside of school. The job of educators should start and stop at the classroom door. Of course. I could see and understand a dedicated teacher noticing that a student is suddenly doing poorly in a subject, or something of that nature and want to perhaps talk to the student after school to find out if there is a problem that he/she could help the child with.

Or maybe if a student has been acting out and disrupting the class, a call or meeting with the parents would be in order. But only in the capacity of trying to educate the child the best way possible, and in the best interest of the child and the rest of the class.

Anything outside of that, should be strictly up to the parent(s) to deal with. Certainly what a student looks at on the Internet, what books they read, what games they play, etc... outside of school should in no way be any business of the board(s) of education. And IMO, if they attempt to make it their business, disciplinary action, if any, ought to be taken against the teacher/principal/other member of the board of education.

It seems as if now a days just about anyone who is in any sort of position of authority at all, takes that authority, no matter how small or large it is, and totally abuses it. This is what the world is coming to. Be it the police, that one is getting way out of hand, and so are the schools, the legislators, judges, and all the way on up the line. This is no way to attempt to make a good people out of the new generation. This behavior teaches nothing but mistrust, fear and disrespect of those who at one time held the utmost trust and respect.